For the first Christmas Party at our new offices in Irpavi (a former restaurant), we chose to take advantage of the facilities and have a barbecue party instead of a more traditional Christmas dinner. It was held on Saturday the 16th of December, and here is the official group photo with the Christmas tree made out of the very last copies of our book “El ABC del desarrollo en Bolivia” (and the last CDs for the top part).

As usual, the party started with a series of fun team building games. Since there were lots of new, young people, and few of the older researchers, we recycled a game from the 2010 INESAD Christmas Party, which can only be played once in a persons life. It consists of hand-cuffing people together two by two with strings, and they then have to disentangle themselves, without cutting the strings.
This always results in quite a lot of acrobatics, since INESAD researchers are not as brainy as they think they are (hint: the solution requires more thinking than acrobatics).

But here is the evidence that it is actually possible:

The second activity was a game of Ping Pong Tic Tac Toe, where you have to bounce ping pong balls into three glasses in a row.

Some team members participated in the soap bubble race, while others prepared the food.

Here is the team ready for food!

After eating, there was a Christmas present exchange, which turned out more or less fair, although the method of distribution was not really well thought out.

While some people left after having received their presents, several stayed around for more games, and the chance to win the final prize (gift cards to the newest Escape Room in La Paz (https://www.facebook.com/Atrapados.Bolivia/) designed and run by the family of INESAD’s Stefano Canelas. Teams were asked to build the highest tower out of a deck of cards, using only a scissor as additional help. The towers also had to be storm and earthquake-resistant, though, to remain standing at the final count-down.

The final game was the most challenging. Each team was given a three-dimensional puzzle, which they had to put together as quickly as possible, but some key pieces were found among the pieces of the other teams, so they also had to find a way to negotiate the exchange of missing pieces.

After this moment it either got dark or the photographer got drunk (or both), because this is where the photographic evidence ends.
Anyway, we wish all the friends and collaborators of INESAD a very pleasant Christmas vacation, and an exciting New Year full of opportunities and surprises!